Hosts Peru continue to impress

News Article

Photo: Gino SalinasPeru at the WJT South America Qualifying

The World Junior Tennis South America qualifying event is underway in Lima, Peru this week, with ten nations in each the boys’ and girls’ event competing for a place at the World Junior Tennis Finals. There are three places available in the boys’ competition and two places up for grabs in the girls’ competition.

In the girls’ event the week has been littered with upsets with second and third seeds, Paraguay and Ecuador, currently sitting at the bottom of Group B. Hosts Peru were the standout team on Tuesday as they backed up their 3-0 day one win to upset the second seeds Paraguay by the same margin. Peru’s Maria Gracia Koo and Anastasia Lamachkine have both raced through their two opening singles matches without the loss of a set. The hosts will enjoy a much-deserved day off today before continuing their qualification campaign on Thursday.

Top seeds Colombia are currently holding firm having posted a 3-0 win in their opening rubber against Chile. Fourth seeds Brazil posted a 2-1 win over Chile on day one, but failed to keep this momentum on day 2 going down 3-0 to an impressive Argentine side.

All girls' teams are fully aware of the pressure in these early stages as only the winning nation from each group will qualify for the World Junior Tennis Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic in August.

The boys’ event has so far gone according to seeding with top seeds Brazil posting a decisive 3-0 win over Bolivia in their opening tie. All three matches lasted short of one hour with the top seeds dropping just a handful of games to record their first win of the week. Second seeds Chile and fourth seeds Peru defeated their respective opponents, Venezuela and Ecuador, by the same margin, although Brazil’s Igor Gimenez had to battle to a three set victory over Victor Hugo Nunez of Ecuador to get his side off to that all-important winning start.